Scientists warn that oats and its products might need closer monitoring for potential mold contamination. They report in Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry that some oat-based breakfast cereals in the U.S. contain a mold-related toxin called ochratoxin A (OTA) that's been linked to kidney cancer in animal studies. The International Agency for Research on Cancer, which is part of the World Health Organization, classifies it as a possible human carcinogen. Although the U.S. doesn't currently regulate the contaminant, the European Union has set maximum limits for OTA in food.

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

In the first U.S. study of urinary arsenic in babies, researchers found that formula-fed infants had higher arsenic levels than breast-fed infants, and that breast milk itself contained very low arsenic concentrations. The findings appear Feb. 23 online in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.The researchers measured arsenic in home tap water, urine from 72 six-week-old infants and breast milk from women. Urinary arsenic was 7.5 times lower for breast-fed than formula-fed infants. The highest tap water arsenic concentrations far exceeded the arsenic concentrations in powdered formulas, but for the majority of the study's participants, both the powder and water contributed to exposure.

Friday, February 20, 2015

Taking hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for menopause, even for just a few years, is associated with a significantly increased risk of developing the two most common types of ovarian cancer, according to a detailed re-analysis of all the available evidence, published in The Lancet. The findings indicate that women who use HRT for just a few years are about 40% more likely to develop ovarian cancer than women who have never taken HRT. The risk of ovarian cancer fell over time after stopping treatment, women who had used HRT for at least 5 years still had a somewhat increased risk of ovarian cancer 10 years later.

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Aside from dietary modification, hypnotherapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, and probiotics are effective in the treatment of pediatric abdominal pain-related functional gastrointestinal disorders, according to research in last week's issue of Pediatrics.Hypnotherapy included suggestions toward control and normalization of gut function, strengthening of ego, and stress reduction. Cognitive behavioral therapy focused on changing attitudes, cognition, and behavior that might improve symptoms.Probiotics are believed to prevent overgrowth of potentially pathogenic bacteria, thereby maintaining the integrity of gut mucosa and normalizing intestinal inflammatory responses. When compared with placebo, Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG (LGG) and the probiotic medical food VSL#3 were associated with significantly more treatment responders.The study states that ore than 40% of children with irritable bowel syndrome and functional abdominal pain use complementary and alternative medicine.

Thursday, February 12, 2015

Many of you who had their Detox Reboot Sessions may have been surprised we ask how you cook your food. Here's why. A new paper published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease provides evidence that cooking foods at high temperatures increases the risk of Alzheimer's disease. This study looked at the content of advanced glycation end products (AGEs) in national diets and clinical studies comparing and compared total AGEs to Alzheimer's disease rates. They found that the higher the cooking temperature, the higher the AGE content. When your food has any sign of charring, that is the worst. Try to cook at medium of or below for everything.

Middle-school children who consume heavily sweetened energy drinks are 66% more likely to be at risk for hyperactivity and inattention symptoms, according to a new study in Academic Pediatrics. The finding has implications for school success and lends support to existing recommendations to limit the amount of sweetened beverages schoolchildren drink. The authors also recommend that children avoid energy drinks, which in addition to high levels of sugar also often contain caffeine.

Researchers in the journal Gut have discovered that antibiotics have an impact on the microorganisms that live in our gut that's more broad and complex than previously known.The findings help to better explain some of the damage these medications can do, and set the stage for new ways to study and offset those impacts.Antibiotic use, and especially overuse, can have unwanted effects on everything from the immune system to glucose metabolism, food absorption, obesity, stress and behavior. The issues are rising in importance, since 40 percent of all adults and 70 percent of all children take one or more antibiotics every year, not to mention their use in billions of food animals.The research also found that antibiotics and antibiotic-resistant microbes caused significant changes in mitochondrial function, which plays a major role in cell signaling, growth and energy production, and for good health they need to function properly.This research also developed a new bioinformatics approach named "transkingdom network interrogation" to studying microbiota, which could help further speed the study of any alterations of host microbiota interactions and antibiotic impact. This could aid the search for new probiotics to help offset antibiotic effects, and conceivably lead to systems that would diagnose a person's microbiome, identify deficiencies and then address them in a precise and individual way.Bonnie: Here's the most encouraging thing they said: healthy microbiota may also be another way to address growing problems with antibiotic resistance. Instead of trying to kill the "bad" bacteria causing an illness, a healthy and functioning microbiota may be able to outcompete the unwanted microbes and improve immune function!

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Until this month's issue of Alimentary Pharmacology and Therapeutics, data on the effects of the category of food chemicals called salicylates was virtually non-existent. We are so pleased to see that the study not only stated that an estimated 20% of the human population has food intolerances (we think it is closer to 40%), the authors singled out salicylates as one of the top offenders because of their "pharmacologic" activity.Order Salicylate Action Plan: the most complete guide to living with the most universally ignored food intolerance.

The use of artificial sweeteners has increased together with the epidemic growth of obesity. In addition to their widespread use in sodas, artificial sweeteners are added to nearly 6000 other products sold in the US, including baby foods, frozen dinners and even yogurts. It has been suggested that the use of nonnutritive sweeteners can lead to body weight gain and an altered metabolic profile. However, very few studies have evaluated the effects of maternal consumption of artificial non-caloric sweeteners on body weight, feeding behavior or the metabolism of offspring in adult life. In this study, we found that animals exposed to aspartame during the prenatal period presented a higher consumption of sweet foods during adulthood and a greater susceptibility to alterations in metabolic parameters, such as increased glucose, LDL and triglycerides. These effects were observed in both males and females, although they were more pronounced in males. Despite the preliminary nature of this study, and the need for further confirmation of these effects, our data suggest that the consumption of sweeteners during gestation may have deleterious long-term effects and should be used with caution.

Monday, February 02, 2015

Mothers managing the diets of children with food allergies say the role of dietary consultants should extend to emotional support and advocacy on parents' behalf with school officials and other care providers.Heather MacKenzie, PhD, from the Graduate School, University of Portsmouth, United Kingdom, and colleagues conducted focus groups with 17 mothers (three groups of four to seven members each) who attended an allergy center for dietary advice for their food-allergic child. All had at least one consultation with a dietitian about their child's food allergy.The researchers asked participants about their dietary advice needs and explored them using thematic analysis. They published their results in the January 2015 issue of the Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.The authors write that recently published guidelines from the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe, and the World Allergy Organization highlight the difficulty in eliminating certain foods and the potential risk to nutritional status and quality of life. They also note that few in the United Kingdom have access to an allergy-specialist dietitian, which suggests more training for specialists is needed.Emotional Support NeededIn addition to medical support, mothers in the focus groups made it clear that they valued emotional support from dietitians who can understand the difficulties in managing an allergic child's diet. They also valued dietitians' role as an advocate and go-between with a child's school or physician."As the mothers describe, coping with a child's food allergy can be emotionally demanding, particularly early after diagnosis. Therefore, it may be that there is a need for dietitians to receive training on how to provide appropriate emotional support or for psychologists to be part of allergy clinics," the authors write.The results suggest mothers value the following actions from dietary consultants or allergy clinics:-provide food advice as soon as possible after diagnosis and review it at milestones such as change of school or adolescence;-supplement consultations with written information such as recipes, lists of food to avoid, and alternative allergen names;-provide checklists to help parents plan for trips to restaurants or birthday parties;-increase training and education for dietitians and families; and-consider providing email or on-call advice for questions between appointments.Although the researchers asked both parents to participate in the study, only mothers consented. The authors say that although mothers tend to take more responsibility for managing their child's food allergy, it is possible that fathers would list different needs for dietary specialists.